Chapter 720: Arrogance has its advantages (2/2)
Hearing this, Duanmu Yao relaxed as well. She was almost scared to the point of collapse herself. Subconsciously, she pressed a hand over her heart and congratulated herself on her luck.
“You’re confined to Lockheart Courtyard for a month!” the sword sect master declared coldly.
Since the punishment wasn’t mete by the Abstinence Courtyard, one could consider this a private penalty–a minor one too, like Long Feiye’s month-long vigil in front of a wall. The only difference was that Long Feiye’s punishment was public, which would lose him a bit of face. These arrangements were par the course for a sect head, which made Cang Qiuzi’s guard drop even further. Inwardly, he chuckled to himself: looks like Li Jianxin has no idea what I’ve been up to these past few years!
“Thank you, senior brother…” he replied in a heavy tone while clutching his abdomen.
Only then did the sword sect master look directly at Han Yunxi with a cold voice. “What are you dawdling for? Hurry and hand over the antidote!”
Now that the immediate danger had passed, Han Yunxi felt more relieved as well. She poked her fingers together and looked apologetic. “Senior sword sect master, this poison….this poison….”
“What’s with the nonsense? Hand over the antidote!” the sword sect master was clearly impatient.
“There’s no antidote for this poison,” Han Yunxi was telling the truth.
The sword sect master’s expression grew fierce as he turned away from Han Yunxi to Long Feiye. “Antidote!”
“Master, if Yunxi says there’s no antidote, then it doesn’t exist. I can’t do anything either,” Long Feiye replied.
Only then did the sword sect master realize that Han Yunxi wasn’t joking. Cang Qiuzi grew alarmed at the fact. “What?!”
Meanwhile, Han Yunxi was disregarding the sword sect as well. If she couldn’t avenge their debts today, at least she could torment Cang Qiuzi a bit! She understood that the sword sect master had acted for the sake of Celestial Mountain’s righteous image and the current political situation within the sword sect. That was why he’d let Cang Qiuzi off lightly. Still, that didn’t mean she had to approve. As a “good daughter-in-law,” she wouldn’t be doing the comatose Grand Concubine Yi any justice unless she had that man suffer a bit more.
Now she went to kneel in front of Cang Qiuzi, her face filled with regrets. “Elder Cang, do you still remember the female assassins back at Lost Void Lake?”
Cang Qiuzi glanced past her towards the sword sect master instead. “Senior brother…” In truth, he was almost at his breaking point. But he didn’t want to lose his composure in front of Li Jianxin or Long Feiye. If no one was around, he’d be writhing on the floor in agony by now. The pain was already spreading upwards from his belly to seemingly twist his organs together. Even the act of breathing was pure torture!
“Senior brother….this damned woman is too…too unbridled. I’m a right and proper elder of Celestial Mountain, yet I’ve been…. If news of this spreads, how will my Lockheart Courtyard show its face?” Cang Qiuzi endured his pain to ask in indignation.
Han Yunxi had gotten used to the disgusting words of hypocrites like him, and simply feigned an air of anxiety. “Elder Cang, don’t say things like that. I didn’t do it on purpose! Poisons like these really have no antidotes, but you’ll be fine after three days and three nights of pain. The toxins will naturally disperse from your stomach then.”
“You’re lying!” Cang Qiuzi felt more pain as soon as he spoke. “All of the female assassins at Lost Void Lake died. Do you think this old man doesn’t know?”
Many of the mercenary corpses that Han Yunxi and Long Feiye had delivered before their trip to the City of Daughters came from the hidden ambush killers of Lost Void Lake. Cang Qiuzi had been keeping tabs on the news.
Han Yunxi only made a pouting noise of protest. “It’s not like that’s my fault. They weren’t poisoned to death, but pained to death. If you want to blame anyone, blame their bodies for being too delicate to bear the agony.” She grew serious then, and went on to explain. “Martial Uncle Cang, don’t you worry. Poison like this isn’t fatal. Only those coddled females would die from such pain. You’re a manly man, so the most it’d do is leave your legs weak. Go back and rest for three days and I promise you’ll be fine.”
Cang Qiuzi’s ashen face turned whiter at her words. All of the dead mercenaries may have been female, but they were still assassins. Since youth, they’d undergone hellish training to master their craft! If even professional killers could succumb to the pain, then what kind of torture was awaiting him? Only half a day had passed. How was he supposed to survive the next two days and a half?
Long Feiye couldn’t resist a slightly smirk, looking wicked and mesmerizing. The sword sect master remained expressionless, but his patience seemed to have improved by leaps and bounds. He didn’t urge Han Yunxi any further. Duanmu Yao sat on one side looking nervously towards Cang Qiuzi. For the first time in her life, she admired Han Yunxi’s poison skills. Although she knew it wasn’t likely that Cang Qiuzi would really die from pain, she couldn’t help but wish he could.
Cang Qiuzi never expected this toxin to be so frightful. He regretted the fact that he’d been too smug with success to evade Han Yunxi’s needle attack. His grand plans had yet to come to fruition, so how could he die by a single poke? Finally, he sent a pleading glance towards the sword sect master.
“Senior brother, save me…”
The sword sect master coughed lightly before glancing towards Long Feiye. In the end, he still didn’t want to talk to Han Yunxi if he could help it. Unfortunately, Long Feiye simply averted his eyes and pretended he didn’t see a thing…